Thomas Fitzgerald

Political Writer

Christine O’Donnell, the upstart tea party Senate candidate who rocked 2010 Delaware’s Republican primary, may have had her private tax records illegally accessed during her campaign, The Washington Times newspaper reported.

The IRS told O’Donnell two years later that an official in the Delaware state government had looked at her files, the same day that there was a flurry of publicity about a lien the tax agency had placed on a house she owned. The story came out in March 2010 as O’Donnell announced her candidacy for the GOP Senate nomination, challenging then-Rep. Mike Castle (R).

The problem was that O’Donnell did not own the house, having sold it in 2008, and she had satisfied her tax debts. The IRS, which had audited her personal finances earlier, later said that the “lien” was a computer data-entry error.

O’Donnell believes the information was leaked as retaliation for her challenge of Castle. She won the nomination but was defeated in the general election, 56 percent to 40 percent, by Democrat Chris Coons.